How This Tutorial Will Help You

SCADA monitoring and control can save you a lot of money and increase profitability, but the implementation can be a sinkhole of cost overruns, delays and limited capabilities. This Tutorial (and its accompanying video) will explain the keys of SCADA technology, give you guidelines for rating various technology and help you decide what kind of SCADA system is best for your needs.

First, we will cover various elements of SCADA technology that apply to its use and implementation, and how it can benefit you. We'll address where SCADA is used, what its value is to you, and how real-time monitoring and control increases efficiency and maximizes profitability.

We'll then look at how typical SCADA systems work. We will explore the world's simplest SCADA system, Data Acquisition, Data Communication, Data Presentation, and Control which are all elements of a typical application.

Next we'll explore how to evaluate SCADA systems and hardware. There can be quite a bit to consider. This includes the two most important components of your SCADA system, sensors and networks, what to look for in a SCADA RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit), and what to look for in a SCADA Master station.

Finally, we will tie together many of these concepts by taking a look at a T/Mon NOC - An Integrated SCADA Monitoring and Control Solution. We'll evaluate whether a T/Mon NOC will work for you, what real people who use T/Mon NOC say about it, why you need help with your SCADA implementation, and what to do next with all of this information.

What is SCADA, and what can it do for you?

SCADA is not a specific technology, but a type of function. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition - any device that gets data about a system in order to control that system is a SCADA application.

A SCADA application has two elements:

1. The process/system/machine you want to monitor and control - this can be a power plant, a water system, a network, a system of traffic lights, or anything else.

2. A network of intelligent devices that interfaces with the first system through sensors and control outputs. This network, which is the SCADA system, gives you the ability to measure and control specific elements of the first system.

You can build a SCADA system using several different kinds of technologies and protocols. This white paper will help you evaluate your options and decide what kind of SCADA system is best for your needs.

Where is SCADA Used?

You can use SCADA to manage any kind of equipment. Typically, systems are used to automate complex industrial processes where human control is impractical - systems where there are more control factors, and more fast-moving control factors, than human beings can comfortably manage.

Around the world, these kinds of systems find use a wide variety of applications. Electric power generation, transmission and distribution is one such industry. Electric utilities use SCADA systems to detect current flow and line voltage, to monitor the operation of circuit breakers, and to take sections of the power grid online or offline. Another is the water and sewage industry.

State and municipal water utilities use SCADA to monitor and regulate water flow, reservoir levels, pipe pressure and other factors. Buildings, facilities and environments where specific temperature and humidity considerations are important is another application.

Mass Transit authorities use SCADA to regulate electricity to subways, trams and trolley buses; to automate traffic signals for rail systems; to track and locate trains and buses; and to control railroad crossing gates. And even your local city traffic department utilizes SCADA to regulate traffic lights, control traffic flow and detect out-of-order signals.

As I'm sure you can imagine, this very short list barely hints at all the potential applications for SCADA systems. SCADA is used in nearly every industry and public infrastructure project - anywhere where automation increases efficiency. What's more, these examples don't show how deep and complex SCADA data can be. In every industry, managers need to control multiple factors and the interactions between those factors. SCADA systems provide the sensing capabilities and the computational power to track everything that's relevant to your operations.

What's the Value of SCADA to You?

Maybe you work in one of the fields I listed; maybe you don't. But think about your operations and all the parameters that affect your bottom-line results. Does your equipment need an uninterrupted power supply and/or a controlled temperature and humidity environment? Do you need to know - in real time - the status of many different components and devices in a large complex system? How about the need to measure how changing inputs affect the output of your operations?

What equipment do you need to control, in real time, from a distance? Where are you lacking accurate, real-time data about key processes that affect your operations? These are questions that proper monitoring and visibility can help answer. The bottom line value depends on the proper application of the right solution to these questions.

Real-Time Monitoring and Control Increases Efficiency and Maximizes Profitability

Ask yourself enough questions like that, and I'm sure you can see where you can apply a SCADA system in your operations. But I'm equally sure you're asking "So what?" What you really want to know is what kind of real-world results you can expect if you do.

Properly planned systems allow you to access quantitative measurements of important processes, both immediately and over time; detect and correct problems as soon as they begin; measure trends over time; discover and eliminate bottlenecks and inefficiencies and control larger and more complex processes with a smaller, less specialized staff.

A properly planned SCADA system gives you the power to fine-tune your knowledge of your systems. You can place sensors and controls at every critical point in your managed process (and as technology improves, you can put sensors in more and more places).

As you monitor more things, you have a more detailed view of your operations - and most important, it's all in real time. So even for very complex manufacturing processes, large electrical plants, etc., you can have an eagle-eye view of every event while it's happening - and that means you have a knowledge base from which to correct errors and improve efficiency. You can do more, at less cost, providing a direct increase in profitability.

Learn SCADA the Easy Way: Attend DPS Telecom Factory Training

One of the best ways to learn SCADA is with an in-depth, totally practical, hands-on class. The DPS Telecom Factory Training Event shows participants how to make alarm monitoring easier and more effective. They learn basic SCADA functionality, Derived Alarms and Controls, and how to configure automatic email and pager notifications. DPS training is the easiest way to learn SCADA, taught by technicians who have installed hundreds of successful monitoring and control deployments.

For dates and registration information, call 1-800-693-3314 today or go to www.dpstelecom.com/training.

How DPS Telecom Can Help You

Building the right SCADA system for your business isn't simple. It's easy to spend more than you need ... but there are also opportunities to save money and improve operational efficiency that you don't want to miss. It's hard to learn everything you need to know and still do your everyday job. DPS Telecom can help you plan your SCADA implementation, with expert consultation, training and information resources. DPS telemetry equipment is built with the capabilities you need. And DPS is committed to helping you get the best SCADA system for your specific needs.

DPS Telecom Guarantees Success - or Your Money Back

You're never taking any risk when you work with DPS Telecom. Your DPS SCADA system is backed by a 30-day, no-risk, money-back guarantee. Test your new system at your site for 30 days. If you're dissatisfied for any reason, just send it back for a full refund. We don't want your money unless you're completely satisfied. It's that simple.

A SCADA system performs four functions: data acquisition, networked data communication, data presentation and control. These functions are performed by four kinds of system components to operate in a cohesive fashion. The first are sensors (either digital or analog) and control relays that directly interface with the managed system. These report to remote telemetry units (RTUs). These are small computerized units deployed in the field at specific sites and locations. RTUs (Remote Telemetry Units) serve as local collection points for gathering reports from sensors and delivering commands to control relays. These RTU's report to SCADA master units. These are larger computer consoles that serve as the central processor for the SCADA system. Master units provide a human interface to the system and automatically regulate the managed system in response to sensor inputs. And finally, these master units use the communications network that connects the SCADA master unit to the RTUs in the field.

Gathering information about your current system can help you identify what you really need in your network monitoring system. Where do you start? What is most important to tackle first? How do you plan the process so it is a proper system when you are completed? To help you do that, we have created the DPS Telecom Remote Site Survey. This survey is a guide designed to help navigate these questions, and acts as a sort of check list to make sure you approach your network monitoring needs thoroughly. Here are some examples from this survey.

DPS Telecom Remote Site Survey

RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) Capacity and Function

1. How many remote sites do you need to monitor?

2. Do you want video surveillance at those sites?

3. Do you want a building access control system to manage entry to those sites?

4. How many alarm points do you need to monitor at each site?

5. How much growth, in sites and alarms at each site, do you anticipate over the next 5 years?

This is just a small sample of the DPS Telecom Remote Site Survey. The full Remote Site Survey is a complete 5-page guide to evaluating your network alarm monitoring needs. For your copy of the Remote Site Survey, call DPS Telecom at 1-800-693-0351.

The World's Simplest SCADA System

The simplest possible SCADA system would be a single circuit that notifies you of one event. Imagine a fabrication machine that produces widgets. Every time the machine finishes a widget, it activates a switch. The switch turns on a light on a panel, which tells a human operator that a widget has been completed.

Obviously, a real SCADA system does more than this simple model. But the principle is the same. A full-scale SCADA system just monitors more stuff over greater distances.

Let's look at what is added to our simple model to create a full-scale SCADA system:

Data Acquisition

First, the systems you need to monitor are much more complex than just one machine with one output. So a real-life system needs to monitor hundreds or thousands of sensors. Some sensors measure inputs into the system (for example, water flowing into a reservoir), and some sensors measure outputs (like valve pressure as water is released from the reservoir).

Some of those sensors measure simple events that can be detected by a straightforward on/off switch, called a discrete input (or digital input). For example, in our simple model of the widget fabricator, the switch that turns on the light would be a discrete input. In real life, discrete inputs are used to measure simple states, like whether equipment is on or off, or tripwire alarms, like a power failure at a critical facility.

Some sensors measure more complex situations where exact measurement is important. These are analog sensors, which can detect continuous changes in a voltage or current input. Analog sensors are used to track fluid levels in tanks, voltage levels in batteries, temperature and other factors that can be measured in a continuous range of input.

For most analog factors, there is a normal range defined by a bottom and top level. For example, you may want the temperature in a server room to stay between 60 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. If the temperature goes above or below this range, it will trigger a threshold alarm. In more advanced systems, there are four threshold alarms for analog sensors, defining Major Under, Minor Under, Minor Over and Major Over alarms.

Data Communication

In our simple model of the widget fabricator, the "network" is just the wire leading from the switch to the panel light. In real life, you want to be able to monitor multiple systems from a central location, so you need a communications network to transport all the data collected from your sensors.

Early SCADA networks communicated over radio, modem or dedicated serial lines. Today, more and more data is being transmitted over optical fiber using SONET. SONET (Synchronous Optical NETworking) is a standardized protocol that transfers digital information over fiber optic networks. For security reasons, data should be kept on closed LAN/WANs without exposing sensitive data to the open Internet.

Sensors and control relays are very simple electric devices that can't generate or interpret protocol communication on their own. Therefore the remote telemetry unit (RTU) is needed to provide an interface between the sensors and the network. The RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) encodes sensor inputs into protocol format and forwards them to the SCADA master; in turn, the RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) receives control commands in protocol format from the master and transmits electrical signals to the appropriate control relays.

What RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) Features Do You Need?

How do you find the right RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit)? Five essential features to look for in an RTU would be discrete alarms to monitor device failures, intrusion alarms, beacons, and flood and fire detectors. Analog alarm inputs, which monitor voltage, temperature, humidity and pressure. Control relays that operate remote site equipment directly from your SCADA master station. Redundant backup communication which allow backup serial ports and/or internal modems to keep your monitoring online even during a LAN failure. And finally, redundant backup power inputs that use dual power inputs and battery backup so you can keep monitoring online, even during power failures.

For more information about DPS RTUs, see us on the Web at www.dpstelecom.com/rtus.

Migrate to LAN Without Killing Your Budget

Installing LAN connections at remote sites is a significant cost - but you can spread if over several budget cycles through LAN migration. A systematic approach works best.

First, install an RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) that supports both LAN and your existing dial-up or serial transport, like the NetGuardian 832A. For sites that don't have LAN connections yet, this allows for communication with the RTU, with future ability to install LAN as you grow.

Then, when it fits into your budget, install a LAN connection at the remote site. The same NetGuardian unit can be immediately switched to reporting over LAN with minimal configuration - and you don't have to rewire any alarms. Gradually migrate different sections of your network to LAN, as your budget and installation manpower allows. The benefits of LAN migration using this approach is installation costs are spread over several budget cycles, you buy just one RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) for both LAN and legacy transport, and you can deploy SCADA NOW at all your locations.

The only display element in our model SCADA system is the light that comes on when the switch is activated. This obviously won't do on a large scale - you can't track a lightboard of a thousand separate lights, and you don't want to pay someone simply to watch a lightboard, either.

A real SCADA system reports to human operators over a specialized computer that is variously called a master station, an HMI (Human-Machine Interface) or an HCI (Human-Computer Interface).

The SCADA master station has several different functions. The master continuously monitors all sensors and alerts the operator when there is an "alarm" - that is, when a control factor is operating outside what is defined as its normal operation. The master presents a comprehensive view of the entire managed system, and presents more detail in response to user requests. The master also performs data processing on information gathered from sensors - it maintains report logs and summarizes historical trends.

An advanced SCADA master can add a great deal of intelligence and automation to your systems management, making your job much easier.

Control

Unfortunately, our miniature SCADA system monitoring the widget fabricator doesn't include any control elements. So let's add one. Let's say the human operator also has a button on his control panel. When he presses the button, it activates a switch on the widget fabricator that brings more widget parts into the fabricator.

Now let's add the full computerized control of a SCADA master unit that controls the entire factory. You now have a control system that responds to inputs elsewhere in the system. If the machines that make widget parts break down, you can slow down or stop the widget fabricator. If the part fabricators are running efficiently, you can speed up the widget fabricator.

If you have a sufficiently sophisticated master unit, these controls can run completely automatically, without the need for human intervention. Of course, you can still manually override the automatic controls from the master station.

In real life, SCADA systems automatically regulate all kinds of industrial processes. For example, if too much pressure is building up in a gas pipeline, the SCADA system can automatically open a release valve. Electricity production can be adjusted to meet demands on the power grid. Even these real-world examples are simplified; a full-scale SCADA system can adjust the managed system in response to multiple inputs.

T/Mon NOC Automatically Troubleshoots and Corrects Problems

The same alarm can instantly go from minor to critical if something else goes wrong. For example, a low battery might not be a big deal until AC power and the backup generator both fail, and then it's an emergency. T/Mon NOC's Derived Alarms feature gives you the power to instantly track these kinds of changing alarm conditions. Derived Alarms combine inputs from multiple alarm points into a single, software-configured alarm, using simple Boolean logic. So let's say your low battery is a MINOR alarm. Low battery AND an AC power failure OR generator failure is a MAJOR alarm, but a low battery AND AC power failure AND generator failure is a CRITICAL alarm.

The T/Mon NOC's Derived Controls are even more useful, correcting problems before any human operator even knows something is wrong. If critical network equipment fails, T/Mon NOC can automatically start backup equipment and notify a service tech. If a security door is breached after-hours, T/Mon NOC can automatically lock security gates, turn on lights, and page security staff. This kind of automation can simplify monitoring and labor costs over the course of time.

How to Evaluate SCADA Systems and Hardware

SCADA can do a lot for you - but how do you make sure that you're really getting the full benefits of your system? Evaluating complex systems can be tricky - especially if you have to learn a new technology while still doing your everyday job.

Making an informed decision is critical, because the stakes are incredibly high. A SCADA system is a major, business-to-business purchase that your company will live with for maybe as long as 10 to 15 years. When you make a recommendation about a permanent system like that, you're laying your reputation on the line and making a major commitment for your company. And as much as this type of system and automation can help you improve your operations, there are also some pitfalls to a hasty, unconsidered implementation. You can spend a fortune on unnecessary cost overruns. Even after going way over budget, you can STILL end up with a system that doesn't really meet all your needs. Or just as bad, you can end up with an inflexible system that just meets your needs today, but can't easily expand as your needs grow.

So let's go over some guidelines for what you should look for in a well-planned system integration.

The Two Most Important Components of Your SCADA System

Although you need sensors, control relays and a communications network to make a complete system, it's your choice of a master station and RTUs that really determine the quality of your SCADA system.

Sensors and control relays are essentially commodity items. Yes, some sensors are better than others, but a glance at a spec sheet will tell you everything you need to know to choose between them. An IP LAN/WAN is the easiest kind of network to work with, and if you don't yet have LAN capability throughout all your facilities, transitioning to LAN is probably one of your long-term goals. But you don't have to move to LAN immediately or all at once to get the benefits of SCADA. The right system will support both your legacy network and LAN, enabling you to make a graceful, gradual transition.

What to Look for in a SCADA RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit)

Your SCADA RTUs need to communicate with all your on-site equipment and survive under the harsh conditions of an industrial environment. Key things you should expect from a quality RTU would be sufficient capacity to support the equipment at your site, but not more capacity than you actually will use. At every site, you want an RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) that can support your expected growth over a reasonable period of time, but it's simply wasteful to spend your budget on excess capacity that you won't use. You should also look for rugged construction and ability to withstand extremes of temperature and humidity.

You know how punishing on equipment your sites can be. Keep in mind that your system needs to be the most reliable element in your facility. You should have a secure, redundant power supply. You need your system up and working 24/7, no excuses. Your RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) should support battery power and, ideally, two power inputs. Another key consideration should be redundant communication ports. Network connectivity is as important to SCADA operations as a power supply. A secondary serial port or internal modem will keep your RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) online even if the LAN fails. Plus, RTUs with multiple communication ports easily support a LAN migration strategy.

You should seek an RTU with nonvolatile memory (NVRAM) for storing software and/or firmware. NVRAM retains data even when power is lost. New firmware can be easily downloaded to NVRAM storage, often over LAN - so you can keep your RTUs' capabilities up to date without excessive site visits. A Remote Telemetry Unite with intelligent controls can make monitoring easier. As I noted above, sophisticated SCADA remotes can control local systems by themselves according to programmed responses to sensor inputs.

This isn't necessary for every application, but it does come in handy for some users. You may also want a real-time clock for accurate date/time stamping of reports and a watchdog timer to ensure that the RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) restarts after a power failure. These features make tracking events easier.

With the NetGuardian 832A, multiple transports are no problem. The NetGuardian supports LAN, dial-up and serial connections simultaneously. So as your network upgrades from legacy transports to LAN, you can use the same NetGuardian units at all your sites.

What can the NetGuardian do for you?

You can use one RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) at all your remote sites, no matter what transport is available.

You don't have to install new transport to collect alarms.

As your network changes, you don't have to buy new remotes for new transports.

You only have to maintain one set of spare units and spare parts for your entire network, for great cost savings and convenience.

What to Look for in a SCADA RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit)

Your SCADA RTUs need to communicate with all your on-site equipment and survive under the harsh conditions of an industrial environment. Here's a checklist of things you should expect from a quality RTU:

Sufficient capacity to support the equipment at your site ... but not more capacity than you actually will use. At every site, you want an RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) that can support your expected growth over a reasonable period of time, but it's simply wasteful to spend your budget on excess capacity that you won't use.

Rugged construction and ability to withstand extremes of temperature and humidity. You know how punishing on equipment your sites can be. Keep in mind that your SCADA system needs to be the most reliable element in your facility.

Secure, redundant power supply. You need your SCADA system up and working 24/7, no excuses. Your RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) should support battery power and, ideally, two power inputs.

Redundant communication ports. Network connectivity is as important to SCADA operations as a power supply. A secondary serial port or internal modem will keep your RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) online even if the LAN fails. Plus, RTUs with multiple communication ports easily support a LAN migration strategy.

Nonvolatile memory (NVRAM) for storing software and/or firmware. NVRAM retains data even when power is lost. New firmware can be easily downloaded to NVRAM storage, often over LAN - so you can keep your RTUs' capabilities up to date without excessive site visits.

Intelligent control. As I noted above, SCADA remotes can control local systems by themselves according to programmed responses to sensor inputs. This isn't necessary for every application, but it does come in handy for some users.

Real-time clock for accurate date/time stamping of reports.

Watchdog timer to ensure that the RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) restarts after a power failure.

Your SCADA master should display information in the most useful ways to human operators and intelligently regulated your managed systems. When events happen, you want an easy and quickly understood system in place to identify problems and act on them effectively.

Flexible, programmable response to sensor inputs is important. Look for a system that provides easy tools for programming soft alarms (reports of complex events that track combinations of sensor inputs and date/time statements) and soft controls (programmed control responses to sensor inputs). Having 24/7, automatic pager and email notification eliminates the need to pay personnel to watch a board 24 hours a day. If equipment needs human attention, the SCADA master can automatically page or email directly to repair technicians. A detailed information display helps operators and technicians in the fast paced nature of critical alarms.

You want a system that displays reports in plain English, with a complete description of what activity is happening and how you can manage it. And, if you can minimize clutter and low priority issues, it leaves time to focus on the truly important or urgent alarms. Nuisance alarm filtering helps with that. Nuisance alarms desensitize your staff to alarm reports, and they start to believe that all alarms are nonessential alarms. Eventually they stop responding even to critical alarms. Look for a SCADA master that includes tools to filter out nuisance alarms.

Another key area to consider is expansion capability. A SCADA system is a long-term investment that will last for as long as 10 to 15 years. So you need to make sure it will support your future growth for up to 15 years. The ability to use redundant, geodiverse backup is vital in a mission critical network. The best SCADA systems support multiple backup masters, in separate locations.

If the primary master fails, a second master on the network automatically takes over, with no interruption of monitoring and control functions. Finally, with all of the different RTU's in a typical legacy system, support for multiple protocols and equipment types is a big cost saver. Early SCADA systems were built on closed, proprietary protocols. Single-vendor solutions aren't a great idea - vendors sometimes drop support for their products or even just go out of business. Support for multiple open protocols safeguards your system against unplanned obsolescence.

Alarm Master Choice: T/Mon NOC

T/Mon NOC has many features to make your alarms more meaningful, including:

T/Mon NOC - An Integrated SCADA Monitoring and Control Solution

My company, DPS Telecom, manufactures T/Mon NOC, a master unit that serves as the core of an integrated SCADA system for all your equipment.

T/Mon NOC can meet all the criteria I've listed for a superior SCADA master ... and can do a whole lot more.

What Can T/Mon NOC Do for You?

The T/Mon NOC provides a single, one-screen view of all your monitored equipment. It will tell you 100% for certain whether anything has gone wrong with any of your monitored equipment, so you can be absolutely sure there are no secret problems anywhere in your system. It will allow you to monitor up to 1 million alarm points, giving you ample capacity to monitor everything in your facilities.

It presents information in simple, plain English, including detailed text messages telling system operators exactly what to do in case of an emergency, which minimizes communications problems during a critical event. Using Derived Alarms and Derived Controls lets you automate every aspect of your systems using simple Boolean logic. You can filter alarms for the needs of different users and select which alarms are immediately forwarded to technicians via pager and email, which alarms can be viewed locally on the T/Mon NOC console, and which alarms are just logged to a history file for recording and later analysis.

At every level of your organization, people can see the information they want without being bombarded with nuisance alarms. Actually, this list just scratches the surface of T/Mon NOC's capabilities. For more information about what T/Mon NOC can do for you, see the T/Mon NOC Product Data Sheet.

5 Ways T/Mon NOC Saves You Money

Saving money is always a good thing. However, in tough times it can be a matter of survival. The T/Mon NOC helps save money and add to the bottom line in 5 specific ways. First, it is a single unit solution.

Instead of replacing every RTU (Remote Telemetry Unit) in your network, you can immediately deploy T/Mon NOC and start using SCADA monitoring NOW. It requires minimal installation costs. A DPS installer will set up and configure your T/Mon NOC for you. Compare that to the manpower costs of installing new RTUs at all your remote sites. You can eplace RTUs when YOU want. With T/Mon NOC, your legacy RTUs are just fine doing what they're currently doing until you decide to replace them.

You can keep them until they die or replace them whenever replacement will have the smallest impact on your budget. The T/Mon NOC allows you to keep your data current transport. Whether your legacy RTUs report over a serial line, a dedicated circuit, an overhead channel or microwave, T/Mon NOC supports your existing data transport. And finally, no vendor lock-in. When you upgrade to T/Mon, you're not trading in one closed system for another, you're trading up to a true multiprotocol alarm system.

How Can You Know That T/Mon NOC Will Work for You?

T/Mon NOC is not a new or untested product. T/Mon units have been in the field for years, successfully performing for clients who need stable, bulletproof monitoring and control to support their mission-critical operations.

What Do Real People Who Use T/Mon NOC Say?

"DPS Telecom gave us a reliable way of accessing a variety of equipment, regardless of the brand or provider. We now have a common interface for our existing system."Harold Moses, KMC Telecom

"DPS told us we didn't have to pay if it didn't work. It works and it's sweet."Glenn Lippincott, Southern Company

"It's hard to find companies with the intelligence and aptitude to meet the customer's exact needs, and I believe that is what DPS is all about."Lee Wells, Pathnet

Get Help With Your SCADA Implementation

Implementing a SCADA system can seem deceptively easy - you just look on the Web, find a few vendors, compare a few features, and add some configuration and you're done, right?

The truth is, developing a SCADA system on your own is one of the riskiest things you can do. There are some typical problems you might face if you don't get expert advice when you're designing your system, many of which are not self-evident as you look at your current system. Often, implementation time is drawn out. It's going to take longer than you think. Network monitoring is a highly technical subject, and you have a lot to learn if you want a successful implementation. And anytime you are trying to do something you've never done before, you are bound to make mistakes - mistakes that extend your time and your budget beyond their limits.

Resources are easily misused due to lack of proper planning. If you're not fully informed about your options for systems integration, you may replace equipment that could have been integrated into your new system. Rushing into a system wide replacement when you could have integrated can cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. This can lead to missed opportunities. If you install a new SCADA system today, you're committing your company to that system for as long as 10 to 15 years. Many companies design what they think is a state-of-the-art SCADA system - and then find that their technology is actually a generation behind.

You'll get complete information on hardware, software, specific applications, specifications, features and benefits ... plus you'll be able to ask questions and get straight answers.

Price is Only the First Part of Cost Justification - Make Sure Your Vendor Offers Guaranteed Results

Bob Berry Chief Executive OfficerDPS Telecom

"In my experience, clients who think hard about cost justification have a more important concern than just price. They want to make sure that they're not spending their company's money on a system that doesn't work as advertised.

That's smart. You have to be careful when working with equipment vendors, especially on protocol mediation projects. Most vendors can't support all your legacy equipment, and they don't have the development capabilities to make integration work.

Some vendors will charge you large NRE (non-refundable engineering) fees up front for custom work, and give no guarantee that the resulting product will meet your performance requirements.

Personally, I think that's a lousy way to do business. I give all my clients a 30-day guarantee: If my product doesn't completely satisfy you, return it for a full refund. If I can't give you a solution, I don't want your money. If I'm doing custom work for you, I don't expect you to pay for it until I've proven that it works to your satisfaction.

Very few vendors will make that guarantee. But you need to demand the best level of service from your vendor to ensure that your SNMP implementation is 100% successful."

My Promise to You

I don't think you should have to take any risks to get the SCADA capabilities you need. If you decide to work with me, I won't let you fail.

If my solution doesn't solve your problems 100%, I don't want you to have it. I have three goals: I want to sell my product, I want you to use my product, and I want you to be completely satisfied with my product.

So here's my guarantee to you: if you buy a DPS Telecom solution, you can test at your site, under real-world conditions, for 30 days. If you're dissatisfied with it, for any reason, just send it back and you'll get a full refund, no questions asked.

So please - if you're interested in SCADA, do yourself a favor and call us today at 1-800-693-0351 . Your network's needs can't wait. I promise you - we'll deliver a solution to your problems, at no risk to you. I wish you the best of success! Sincerely,

Bob Berry Chief Executive Officer DPS Telecom

I'm Ready to Take a Serious Look at T/Mon NOC - What Do I Do Next?

Call Ron Stover at 1-800-693-0351 or email him at sales@dpstele.com and ask for a free consultation on T/Mon NOC SCADA solutions. Ron will be happy to discuss your specific requirements and answer any questions your have.

There's no obligation to buy. You won't be bothered by high-pressure salesmen. You'll just get straightforward information to help you make the best decision about your network monitoring.